Mossbauer Spectral Study of the Low-Temperature Electronic and Magnetic Properties of alpha-FePO4 and the Mixed Valence Iron(II/III) Phosphate SrFe3(PO4)(3)

摘要

The Mossbauer spectra of trigonal alpha-FePO4, measured between 4.2 and 300 K, exhibit hyperfine parameters characteristic of high-spin iron(III) in a pseudotetrahedral oxygen environment. Between 24.5 and 300 K, the spectra show a paramagnetic quadrupole doublet and at 24.0 K the spectrum reveals the onset of antiferromagnetic exchange. At 4.2 and 16 K, a single magnetic sextet is observed with hyperfine fields of 51.36(1) and 42.74(1) T, respectively, with an angle, theta, of 90 degrees between the principal axis of the electric field gradient tensor in the basal plane of the trigonal unit cell and the hyperfine field along the c axis. The spectra obtained between 21 and 18 K have been fitted with two equal-area magnetic sextets with theta angles of 25 and 85 degrees, angles which indicate that the iron(III) magnetic moments are canted away from the c axis. The reduced hyperfine field versus reduced temperature plot indicates a departure from a Brillouin S = 5/2 behavior, as a result of some magnetostriction at the Neel temperature. The Mossbauer spectra of class 1 mixed-valence SrFe3(PO4)(3), measured between 4.2 and 300 K, exhibit hyperfine parameters characteristic of two high-spin iron(II) ions and one high-spin iron(III) ion in a pseudooctahedral oxygen environment. At and above 40 K, the spectra show two paramagnetic quadrupole doublets, whereas at 39.0 K the spectrum reveals the onset of ferrimagnetic exchange. Between 4.2 and 30 K, the spectra have been fitted with two magnetic sextets with theta angles of 85 and 10 degrees for the iron(II) and iron(III) sites, respectively. The reduced hyperfine field versus reduced temperature plots for the iron(II) and iron(III) sites show a distinct departure from Brillouin S = 2 and S = 5/2 behavior, respectively, a departure that suggests a first-order magnetic transition at 39.5(5) K with differing magnetostrictions at the iron(II) and iron(III) sites.